BUFFALO, NY (WBEN) "I think there's still pain. I think people in their own way are still grieving," said Eva Doyle, longtime columnist and East Side community activist, when she sat down with WBEN's Susan Rose this week at the Merriweather Library on Jefferson Avenue.
"For the first several months after the shooting, I could not come down Jefferson Avenue without pausing at Tops, and looking in that direction, and thinking about what happened there."
Doyle knew two of the ten victims killed in the mass shooting on May 14, 2022. She was friends with Katherine (Kat) Massey and she knew Aaron Salter, Jr., the armed security guard who lost his life while confronting the Tops shooter.
"I don't know if we'll ever be the same in our community," she added. "But I know at one point we have to move on, and we have to come together."
Doyle, who is a retired Buffalo school teacher, has been writing a column for The Criterion for more than 44 years. She is known in the community as "Mother Doyle."
She was always a Tops shopper on Jefferson Avenue. In fact she said she could have been at the store at the time of the massacre, but changed her routine that day and went to the dry cleaners instead. To this day, Doyle continues to shop at the Jefferson Avenue Tops.
"This is not just a supermarket. It's a beloved supermarket in the heart of the black community. When you went there you knew your neighbors, you knew the people who worked there. The store meant, and still means a lot to this community."
When the store reopened after the shooting, Doyle admitted she hesitated about going back in. But when she did, she was struck by a waterfall and poem near the front office that pays homage to the victims. It had a calming effect on her.
"I had to make a decision. Should I continue to shop here? The answer was yes. This is our supermarket. It's the only one in the heart of the African American community. I'm doing my part, financially, to make sure it stays here," she added.
Doyle admits when she goes to Tops, she's always aware of her surroundings. She knows where the exits are, in the event something happens. She said it's a sign of the times.
"I still get angry and I say how dare this white supremacist come in and disrupt our our community and take away ten of our citizens and injure three more. I always say he took the best of us. They were good people, leaders in their own right. They were people of faith, elders and people who made contributions to our community. How dare he do this."
Eva Doyle has one request of the community this weekend. "Turn on your porch lights in memory of the victims. If you don't have a porch light, you can use a battery powered or solar lantern. Or use a string of white Christmas lights around your porch." She said if you don't have any of those, take a few minutes and have a moment of silence and pray for the families and our community."